Notes and Errata: June 11th, 2010

As it stands now, looks like everybody’s waiting on Izzo’s decison. He seems to be leaning towards coming to Cleveland, although his “sick of recruiting” comment makes me nervous: doesn’t he know that taking the Cleveland gig comes with taking the ultimate recruiting job?

If Izzo doesn’t come, it’s more feelers to big-name candidates, including Byron Scott. It’s pretty much a Catch-22 at this point: the Cavs want a big coach so that they can convince LeBron to stay, but no big coach will come unless they think they’re coaching LeBron.

Ultimately, it bodes well for Mike Brown’s future that Avery Johnson got a head coaching gig. Also, this is one more nail in the “LeBron will come to New Jersey/Brooklyn” coffin — I doubt a coach with a Mike Brown-like resume will excite him.

-NBA Finals stuff: it was one of those games where Kobe did everything wrong, but still ended up with 33 points on 61.1% True Shooting, because he is that good at making crazy shots sometimes. Only four two-point field goals for Kobe, and none of them came from inside the paint.

-Good for Big Baby and “Honey, I shrunk J.R. Smith.” Nice to see them do what Leon Powe did in the 2008 finals.

-Well, Derek Fisher and Rasheed Wallace went back to their regularly scheduled sucking on offense, although ‘Sheed did play solid defense and hit one big three.

-If the Lakers lose because injuries make Bynum a non-factor YET AGAIN, he becomes a legitimately tragic figure. It’s one thing to be Greg Oden, and another to have to sit and watch a team go to three straight finals with their starting center forced to sit.

-Alright, that’s all for tonight. We’ll keep you updated on the coaching situation as new stuff develops.

7 Responses to “Notes and Errata: June 11th, 2010”

I just don’t know what to think about Izzo potentially coming to the pros… love the guy’s philosophy and as an OSU alum, I’ve seen with my own eyes how well he gets MSU to play. If there was a college coach you’d think had what it takes to have moderate success in the nba, couldn’t think of a better coach than him. My reservation comes in the sense of the Cavs being at the brink of a franchise changing transition, either for the good, OR the bad. With as much success as he’s had in college, the demands are far greater in pros. He’s totally unproven, and there is a significant risk of the scales tipping on the side of bad. Scott won 3 rings with the lakes and coached the Nets to the finals twice. Of the available coaches, he’s the most and best experienced. And it’s a much safer risk at this point if the end result is to keep LBJ in Cleveland. No disrespect to Izzo but Scott would be my prime choice even without LBJ as that wouldn’t make Scott turn down the job. While Izzo might inherit the best team a college to pro coach has had, something about it is kinda unsettling right now.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, the ultimate question is not who will offer the best opportunity to win. The question is who will offer the best opportunity to keep LeBron. Izzo, for better or worse, is probably the best in terms of keeping LeBron on the market. Byron Scott is probably the best in terms of winning. I just can’t see Byron Scott enticing LeBron to stay. He’s flamed out in two NBA markets after leading them to results.

Ultimately, there are no guarantees in terms of hiring any coach. To me, I have full confidence that Izzo will be able to make the jump. He’s lead too many NBA-talent-lite teams to the promised land for him to be a complete bust.

Scott scares me. With the Nets, there were persistent whispers that Scott was mainly a figurehead and that Eddie Jordan was doing most of the coaching. And sure enough, after Jordan left to coach the Wizards, Scott didn’t make it through a full season.

In fairness, I don’t know what happened in New Orleans. Chris Paul is vouching for him (which none of the Nets did after he was fired). So maybe he’s not hopeless.

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